Fuel spilled near Nunavut mine

Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. is cleaning up a fuel spill near its Nunavut gold mine, after a truck carrying diesel rolled over on a road earlier this week.

About 40,000 litres of diesel spilled from the tanker truck after it slipped off a road and rolled to its side on Wednesday morning, according to a Nunavut government spill report obtained by CBC News on Friday.

The rollover took place at kilometre 22 of a company-owned road near Agnico-Eagle's Meadowbank gold mine, which is about 110 kilometres by road north of Baker Lake in Nunavut's Kivalliq region.

Agnico-Eagle's emergency response team and environmental staff used emergency berms and two ponds to contain the spill to an area of 250 square metres, according to the spill report.

Officials say the fuel, which was spilling out of a hole in the tanker, was directed into the ponds and pumped out into tanks. A total of 58,000 litres of fuel and water were captured.

The tanker was about 200 metres away from a stream, but none of the spilled fuel got into the stream, according to the spill report.

Crews are continuing to excavate contaminated soil from the spill site.